Subgroup analysis is used for categorical covariates while meta-regression is used for continuous covariates and categorical covariates.
So, what is the difference between subgroup analysis for categorical covariates and meta-regression for categorical covariates?
Thanks in advance.
they are essentially similar.
subgroup analysis estimates absolute statistic quantities, whereas the regression gives relative estimates as the statistic quantity.
The subgroups analysis is a good option provided the heterogeneity among those subgroups is not significant, or is suspected that it´s different between them subgroups; this since the variability is estimated separately within each subgroup with fewer repeats, if this happens you use meta-regression.
i recomended read this examples:
https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/metafor/metafor.pdf
focus on page 40, i hope this sources help you.
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